Results of theoretical and experimental studies of solar wind and active galactic nuclei on LFVN VLBI network using S2 recording system

Abstract

We discuss the results of two sessions of observations at the Low-Frequency VLBI Network (LFVN), carried out in 1999 (INTAS99.4) and 2000 (INTAS00.3) at a wavelength of 18 cm using the S2 recording system and processed using the correlator system in Pentictone, Canada. In different configurations of the experiments on studying the solar wind and active galactic nuclei, the antennas at the following sites were employed: Medvezhji Ozera (RT-64, Special Engineering Bureau of Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Russia), Pushchino (RT-22, Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory, Russia), Hartebeesthoek (RT-25, South Africa), Noto (RT-32, Italy), Shanghai (RT-25, China), Pune (RT-45, India), Svetloe (RT-32, Institute of Applied Astronomy RAS, Russia). The work resulted in successful testing of the method of radio probing of the solar-wind plasma by radiation of extragalactic sources, supplemented with the method of radio interferometric reception. Spectral analysis of the obtained data allowed us to estimate the index of spatial spectrum of the electron number density.uctuations and the transfer velocity of the solar-wind inhomogeneities on the sounding path. We present and discuss the retrieved images of STA-102 quasar and the BL Lacertae object 1418+546 with millisecond angular resolution and demonstrate the results of modeling the structure of these sources.